Page 65 of Game On

Other than Shawn not making it, two guys who were on the team last year didn’t make it either. There’s no way of knowing yet if they’ll take Coach up on his offer to help the team, but I hope they do.

“Alright.”

I look up at the sound of my dad’s voice and see him walking toward the rest of the team. He’s got such a big smile on his face that it warms me from the inside. Though we’ve had our issues lately, he’s still my dad, and I guess they’re allowed to make mistakes.

“I talked to the Mrs.” He claps his hands together. “Party at the Dale House right now. Bring your bathing suits. If you need directions, let me know or ask Quintessa.”

My mouth drops. Everyone seems completely excited to be invited over to our house, but there’s just one word clogging my brain. I peer over at Ryan. His face is hard. That had to have hurt him, too.Mrs.? Since when?I swallow and walk up to my dad. He’s giving Jeff Warner directions, so I smile and wait like a good little girl, but when Jeff leaves, I tug on his sleeve. “Dad, is this a good idea?”

He puts his large hand on my shoulder. “I talked to your mom. She’s ecstatic for you. She’s arranging everything right now. Don’t you worry about it.”

Then, he walks away without another word. Several of my new teammates track him down. I turn to see the Ballers standing together. They all know what happened. They know there’s no Mrs. There’s my mom and Ryan’s mom. Walking up to them, I shrug. “I don’t know,” I tell them. Then, I look at Ryan. I know what this feels like. Betrayal. A sucker punch to the stomach. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugs and looks away.

I take a deep breath. “Are you guys coming?”

Lake smirks. There’s something in his eyes that makes a shiver run up my spine. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Alec puts his arm around me and pulls me to him. He drops a kiss to the side of my head. “We’ll be there.”

I step away. “If anyone needs a ride, you can come with me, but I’m leaving right away. I better get going now in case my mom needs help.” I start jogging through Timothy Dale Court toward the glass doors that empty into the parking lot. I hear sneakers squeaking behind me, but that’s not unusual on a basketball court so I don’t stop. When I’m outside, my new jersey clenched in my fists, a voice calls my name. It makes me stop immediately. Turning, I find Ryan Linc just now stepping out of the glass doors.

He walks up to me, his stride sure, but as he gets closer, I notice his hands are in his pockets and his shoulders are a little hunched. “Do you think it’s cool if I come?” When I drop my head to the side, he sighs. “I mean your mom. You must have told her what happened at my house. About my mom...”

“She’s not mad at you, Ryan.”

He looks away. “Yeah, well, my mom’s been the other woman before, and some people don’t give a shit that it has nothing to do with me.”

I bite down on my lip, guilt slapping me in the face. Ryan’s never been that nice to me, except for when I thought he was faking it, but I never wanted to be a mean person in return. I said some terrible things to him, but I was just so pissed when I found out about my dad. “I didn’t mean what I said about your mom that—”

He steps closer, forcing me to look up at him. “Don’t fucking apologize to me.”

I swallow. The tension in his shoulders is overwhelming. If he was concrete, he would start to fissure about now.

His balled hands come up to his mouth. “I just want to make sure I’m not going to piss your mom off if I show up.”

“You won’t,” I promise him. I look over my shoulder to my Mustang. “You want a ride?”

He glances back toward Timothy Dale Court, but the Ballers haven’t come out yet. Other players are filtering toward their cars, and I hope they have to go home to get their swimming gear first. My mom will flip if a bunch of kids start showing up when I’m not there first.

I shift on my feet. “I’m sorry, Ryan, I really have to go. No pressure about the ride, but if you want to come now, we have to go.”

I turn to jog toward my car. I press the unlock button on my fob and slide in. As I do, I hear the passenger side door opening and see Ryan get in, stretching his long lets out. When I pull my seatbelt around me, I hide a smile into my shoulder and then start the car. Ryan immediately starts texting, and I imagining he’s telling the rest of the Ballers that he’s riding with me. The rest of them will probably come in Sloan’s Jeep.

Driving a little faster than I normally would, I punch it up the mountain toward home, hugging the curves. Ryan is too busy looking at all the fancy buttons in the car as we drive. He even fiddles with the radio. I was too impatient to put the top down, but he still seems impressed. The whole time we’re in the car together, my skin is buzzing. Ryan Linc likes me. He admitted it. Sure, he acted like it killed him to do it, but he did. The knowledge makes me feel funny. Vindicated, in a way. I always felt like there was something so wrong with me that I was drawn to a bunch of guys that didn’t give two shits about me. Now, I know that isn’t true. Well, on the surface it’s true, but maybe not deep down. I don’t know, I’m no psychologist. I don’t know why guys are so weird.

When we get to my house, I pull along the side of the garage in the grass. I don’t know how many cars there are going to be, but we need to give people enough space to park. I grab my new jersey and head inside. As soon as we walk into the foyer, my mom yells, “I’m in the kitchen.”

Ryan seems hesitant to go any further, but I wave him on. He’s looking at the house, not really acting in awe of it, but inspecting everything. I know it’s a lot different from his house.

“I swear I could kill your father.”

I laugh and bite my lip. “I have someone with me, Mom,” I call out.

I hear her curse and then Ryan and I come around the corner. She looks up. When she sees who it is, she only falters a little. I have to give her credit. If I had the time, I should have texted her a warning. “You remember Ryan Linc, right Mom?”

“Of course.” Mom wipes her hands on a towel that’s on the counter and then comes around. She hugs him, and I’m suddenly jealous of my mom. It’s been a long time since I’ve had my arms around Ryan. “Congratulations on making the team again,” she says. “Though, I suppose there wasn’t any doubt you’d be on it.” Then, she turns toward me. Her eyes swallow me, and I hold up my new jersey with my name and number on it. She touches my cheek then wraps me in a hug. “I’m so proud of you, Tess.” She steps back, eyes shining, but turns away quickly. “I’m just making cookies. I have pizza and soda being delivered in about fifteen minutes. Hope that’s okay.”

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